Articles: tracheal-tube.
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Observational Study
Using middle finger length to determine the internal diameter of uncuffed tracheal tubes in paediatrics.
The selection of an appropriately-sized tracheal tube is of critical importance in paediatric patients to reduce both the risk of subglottic stenosis from a tracheal tube that is too large, and inadequate ventilation or poor end-tidal gas monitoring from a tracheal tube that is too small. Age formulae are widely used, but known to be unreliable, often resulting in a need to change the tracheal tube. Previous work has shown that the length of the middle finger and the internal diameter can both be used to guide depth of tracheal tube insertion. ⋯ We found a linear relationship between uncuffed tracheal tube internal diameter and median middle finger length for each size of tracheal tube. Relationship between middle finger length and cuffed tracheal tube internal diameter was less clear. We propose that the formula: 'middle finger length (cm) (round up to nearest 0.5) = internal diameter of uncuffed tracheal tube (mm)' may be an improvement compared with age formulae for selecting uncuffed tracheal tubes in children, although this requires formal testing.
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Semin Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth · Sep 2018
Randomized Controlled TrialBenefits of Using High-Volume-Low-Pressure Tracheal Tube in Children Undergoing Congenital Cardiac Surgery: Evidence From a Prospective Randomized Study.
In the past 2 decades, usage of high-volume-low-pressure microcuffed tracheal tubes in smaller children has increased. However, there is paucity of evidence of its usage in smaller children undergoing congenital cardiac surgery. The aim of this study was to assess if microcuff endotracheal tubes in neonates and younger children undergoing congenital cardiac surgery is associated with better outcomes than uncuffed tubes. ⋯ Microcuff pediatric tracheal tube is associated with significantly lower incidence of stridor, tube changes, and anesthetic gas requirement. This leads to significant cost reduction that offsets the higher costs associated with usage of a microcuff tracheal tube.
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Tracheal tube tip and cuff positions of different cuffed paediatric tracheal tube brands in the trachea can vary with design. ⋯ All studied cuffed paediatric tracheal tubes have major design flaws potentially leading to airway complications. Tracheal tube manufacturers are urgently asked to improve the design of cuffed paediatric tracheal tubes. Alternative strategies for tracheal tube placement can allow safe tracheal tube placement of uncuffed but not of cuffed tracheal tubes.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Cuffed vs. uncuffed tracheal tubes in children: a randomised controlled trial comparing leak, tidal volume and complications.
What did they do?
Chambers et al. compared ventilation parameters and respiratory complications in 104 children randomly allocated to ventilation with either a cuffed or non-cuffed ETT. They primarily investigated airway leak as measured by the difference between inspiratory and expiratory volumes.
And they found?
For both volume and pressure-controlled ventilation, leakage was lower for cuffed tubes than uncuffed. Notably leak was stable with cuffed tubes and PCV, but progressively increased over 30 minutes after intubation with an uncuffed tube.
Cuffed tubes required fewer intubations and changes, and resulted in fewer short-term complications (coughing, desaturation, hoarseness or sore throat).
Take-home message
Modern cuffed paediatric endotracheal tubes offer significant clinical advantages over uncuffed ETTs.
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